How About I Guide Myself Right Into Your Heart? || Joongdok - Chapter 1: Chapter 1

With a slam of a door, Dokja was left alone once again in the quiet space of the guiding room. The feux-calm of the tidy area –carefully curated by a team of designers– did little to relax tense Espers entering the white walled interior.
Dokja sighed, rubbing his throbbing hand, sore from the tight grip of the Esper who came and went in a huff. He massaged the slender fingers, tilting his head to the side and blowing air to loosen the dark fringe that was beginning to grow past his eyebrows.
Maybe it was time for a trim, Dokja distracted himself.
It hadn't been long since he began working at this guild, but it had taken him years to get to a point where the grumblings of the Espers didn't faze him. He decided that whether he let them push him or not, they would leave unsatisfied regardless.
Not that he blamed them– how could he? The relationship between a guide and an esper was tumultuous at best: almost like an overflowing bathtub and its drain.
He clenched his hand into a fist, not blaming the Esper who was assigned to him for their tight grip and frustration at the slow pouring relief they were granted. Dokja eyed the bed in the corner of the office, just behind the seat in front of him. Of course, there were easier, more fulfilling ways for Espers to get relieved of the volatile energy swirling in their bodies, but Dokja didn't provide such service. He already felt light-headed at the bare contact of palms.
It was easy to ignore desperate eyes when you knew what the alternative was.
Dokja knew what his body was made to handle, and the company was just happy to have another guide to try and match the outnumbering Espers.
Checking the dark banded watch that adorned his wrist, he browsed his schedule to see when the next Esper would be gracing his presence. When he was certain no sudden add-ons had been booked, Dokja quickly stood and made his way to leave the guiding room, ignoring the dizzy spell that followed his steps and blurred his vision slightly.
Nothing so debilitating that would stop him from getting his coffee for the day.
As he stepped out of his assigned space, using the door as a temporary support as he closed it, he took long strides to get the blood flowing back to his thumping head. He walked past the hallways housing other guides and chose not to dwell on some of the questionable sounds of ongoing sessions, instead focusing on the nearing clearance of cubicles and the office breakroom his precious coffee maker was in.
As he bee-lined it to the machine that had allowed him to adjust to the new workspace, he could see a few of the office staff leaving. He bowed briefly to be polite, a tidy smile on his face, before resuming his necessary task of getting caffeine into his body.
As the machine whirred, he heard a step and a clearing of a light voice behind him. At this, he turned around part way, not expecting the brown haired woman to actually be directing her attention towards him.
"Oh!" Dokja stepped to the side immediately, "Were you waiting for the coffee maker?"
"No, no," She smiled kindly, waving her hands in front of her to mirror her words. "I just noticed you were a new face and thought I should say hi."
Dokja peered carefully at the glowing face of the woman in front of him.
Dokja couldn't believe there was someone so friendly at the establishment. From her expression, Dokja didn't doubt she was being genuine. When she reached a hand forwards in greeting, he took it in a firm shake.
"Nice to meet you! My name is Yoo Sangah, I'm in HR."
Though Dokja didn't expect to be dealing with human resources this early into his new career, he figured setting a good example upfront wouldn't be so bad.
"Hello, Ms. Yoo, my name is Kim Dokja. I'm on the guiding unit." He smiled, eyes fully-formed crescents.
The woman in front of him smiled knowingly, and Dokja could assume she had already known who he was. Likely a new guide was something worth talking about here at the company. He had already heard plenty in this very break room about certain guides and espers, and he was sure he had his own fair-share of rumours going around.
Great.
"So," He might as well keep the conversation going, his coffee was taking extra long today it seemed, "How long have you worked for MinoGuild, Ms. Yoo?"
The fair haired woman tapped her fingers lightly on her thigh as she stood, "It's been a few years, I initially started on contract". Dokja nodded to this. However, his smile slipped a little when the other got serious, speaking in a low-tone. "Mr. Kim, if you ever feel like rumours are getting out of hand, do not hesitate to contact our department."
Dokja simply nodded, wondering exactly what types of rumours were even going around for her to bring this up. He didn't doubt there were nasty rumours– especially considering he was one of few guides refusing high contact guiding– but he tended to keep to himself at work and never came across anyone saying things to his face.
"If any Esper tries anything, we'll write up a stern incident report! Don't you worry!" The genuine gravitas of her expression made Dokja laugh, agreeing heartedly to let her know if anything ever did occur.
The beeping of the coffee machine brought him back, and he thanked Ms. Yoo for her reassurances.
He hadn't expected to feel so comforted during his coffee trip, but it was nice to know someone this warm was working in their HR.
"Well, I'll head back to work." Yoo Sangah patted her blazer smooth. "It was nice to chat with you, Guide Kim!"
With a coffee now warming his hand, Dokja smiled. "It was nice chatting with you as well, Ms. Yoo."
With a final wave at the door, Dokja was alone in the break room and he sighed in contentment at the familiar scent filling his nose. Three packets each of sugar and cream later, the dark liquid became something drinkable.
It was nice to have some peace finally, even though having someone to talk comfortably with was also quite nice. He took a sip.
It was in the middle of his next sip that this peace was short-lived, and Dokja was shocked to see a familiar name flash on his wrist, signaling an urgent need for guidance.
[Yoo Joonghyuk]
There, in bold, black letters, the name of one of the top Espers in contract with the guild.
He popped his head out of the break room, coffee in hand, eyes searching for the scheduling staff at the office desk. It was a large behemoth of a table in the back, often buzzing with multiple hands typing away at their computers. Dokja almost envied the monotony of that line of work. He didn't doubt that- if he hadn't presented as a Guide fresh out of school- he too would be whizzing around in a cubicle.
He approached the distant desk, careful to make his presence known and gain the acknowledgment of a worker clad in business wear, seeing one nod towards him.
"Excuse me. I believe there is an error in my schedule." He unclipped his employee badge, ready to scan it when prompted. He saw a few other employees look up from their computers nearby, obviously alarmed and curious at the thought of there being an error in the system. "I believe I was scheduled with the wrong Esper."
The worker in front of him prompted him to scan his badge on their reader.
"Please give me a moment to pull your schedule. . ." She peered at her screen, "Guide Kim."
In the short moment that followed, he could only hear furious typing, before she tilted her screen to give Dokja a view of his official schedule, blaring bright light and cementing his worry further.
"Everything appears to be in order, Guide Kim." Eyes flitted up for the first time to look at the man standing in front of the desk, "You were booked with Esper Yoo for an immediate guiding session." Dokja saw more heads raise from their computers at the mention of the specific Esper.
"I. . . suppose there wasn't an error, then." Dokja paused. "Very well. Thank you for your help."
The woman was quick to go back to typing up a storm, no time to dwell on the plight of the guide.
Dokja sighed and made his way towards his assigned guiding room, coffee cup still in hand. Though he hadn't exactly guided – or met, for that matter– this Esper before, the name was a topic of discussion among the staff in the break room. How could it not be? Much of the Guild's success could be attributed to this Yoo Joonghyuk person (or so he had heard, anyways).
But that wasn't what the hushed conversations around the coffee machine were often about.
Dokja learned quickly that the infamous man was hard to come by, and there wasn't a guide on this floor that had ever been assigned to the Esper. Some would even swear that they had seen the looming man in the halls between missions, eyes shining gold with barely contained rampage. Many voices would express relief that they never would have to guide such a charged Esper.
Of course, Dokja felt bad hearing all this gossip regarding a man he had never met – and one that was obviously lacking in an outlet for their power, judging by the mentions of gleaming eyes. From talking with Yoo Sangah earlier, it seemed nobody was safe from workplace gossip: not him, and definitely not a high-ranked Esper.
Being a fly on the wall during break times sure was a great way to get intel on the employees he shared the building with.
He took a final swig of his coffee as he walked briskly, downing the last drop with his head tilted back and throwing out the now softened paper cup along the way.
As he walked the stretch of hallways back to his assigned space, Dokja balled his fist decisively. He wouldn't mind guiding the Esper bit-by-bit, despite his low affinity as a Guide.
He could offer a hand. It was the least he could do considering all the things he's overheard (though terrifying) that the Esper had accomplished since the Guild's inauguration years prior. He might even owe his current job to the positions that opened as the guild grew and spread its influence.
Dokja came to a stop at his familiar door, pushing it open to see an unusual mad rush of staff and managers in what used to be the tidy, pristinely kept facade of a guiding room. The table and couches had been pushed impossibly close to the walls, and a splatter of blood marred the one window that faced out the room.
He stared dumbly at the workers as they hooked up vital readers and machines Dokja had never seen before to a darkly clad man laying still in the bed, a bed that had gone entirely unused in Dokja's time here as a guide.
As he stood dumbstruck, an employee caught a glimpse of him, and quickly alerted the room of his presence.
"You must be Guide Kim!" The worker made quick work ushering Dokja towards the bed and before he realized, Dokja was somehow sitting in a chair they materialized for him at the edge, facing the man lying flat and unresponsive on the sheets.
Dokja almost recoiled away seeing the bloodied face of the man, but held himself still, reminded of his earlier determination to not let his prejudgments get in the way of his guiding responsibilities.
Not missing the hesitance of the guide, another worker quickly raised a cloth to wipe away the red splatter on the other's face, "Oh! Do not worry, Guide Kim. This is not Esper Yoo's blood."
Dokja didn't exactly know what to make of that. He took one last look around at the workers who now stood still –waiting– and turned back to take the man's hand in his.
The hand was rough, and definitely larger than his own, but this was the case for many of the Esper's he guided. Firm skin pressed warmth into his own palm, and he got to work slowly opening up the floodgates.
Guiding an unresponsive Esper was a tricky task, and Dokja couldn't say he was an expert, but he had found a method that worked over the years.
Sometimes Espers would return bruised and bloodied from the missions they were sent on, and an unconscious Esper meant one that couldn't control the amount of energy they were pouring out. Too much out-pour too fast was bad news for the Guide, and Dokja had seen Guides go into shock before. There was a tricky balance here: he needed to be sure he wasn't opening the drain too fast–or much at all, in this case.
Just a crack, Dokja repeated to himself. Just a–
Dokja felt a sharp pain shoot up his arm, almost causing him to let go of the other's hand in shock. He managed to hold on despite the shock to his system. The feeling only grew as Dokja tried to dampen the transfer a little more. Making sure contact wasn't lost, Dokja lightened his grip as to somehow lower the intensity of the guiding.
He could see the skin of his arm bubbling and twisting underneath the thin material of his collared shirt, and he felt like throwing up at both the visual of it and the sickening feeling spreading throughout his gut. He lowered his head, resting it at the edge of the mattress, careful to turn the knob further closed in his mind, trying to save himself the nausea he would undoubtedly be feeling in the upcoming days while still easing a little bit of the Esper's burden.
Whatever he was feeling, he knew the Esper would be feeling a hundred-times worse without any guidance at all.
Though he still felt the awful surge of the diffusion, Dokja raised his head to regain some semblance of control over his posture. As he did, a cold shiver ran up his neck and he locked eyes with the now-awake man before him.
Gold eyes, wide and angry, stared up at him from where the Esper lay in bed.
Shocked, Dokja couldn't keep his focus on the task at hand, and he felt an overabundance of searing energy shoot up through their point of contact. The glaring Esper lain before him yanked his hand free at this. Revulsion was evident on his face, but Dokja didn't get a chance to feel offended before he gripped his own head in vertigo. His ears rang and his vision was considerably blearier than a typical overwhelming guidance session. The voices around him faded in and out as he continued to slump over with his head in his palms, but he could make out the faint timber of an angry voice in front of him.
Dokja was still very much conscious, however he couldn't find it in himself to care about anything in the moment, hearing the Esper's booming voice yelling into the small room, stating that he didn't need guiding. Scoffing at this, Dokja recalls the bright gold of the Esper's eyes.
He quickly pressed his lips together immediately after, though, remembering who he was in the presence of.
He sensed the air in the room shift with tangible anger, and expertly avoided making eye-contact with the source of the fury by firmly keeping his hands over his face.
Still mostly in a dizzy-spell, he felt a team of workers help to have him removed (from his OWN office, might he add) and take him to a resting site some distance away.
As he was carried and placed to rest, he couldn't help snickering at the whole fiasco. He now stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling in what he surmised was a medical office or observation room. It felt like a whirlwind had come and passed and now he was laying silently in an empty, darkened room, listening to the ticking of a clock nearby.
With a sigh, Dokja used his energy to turn his head to the side and peer at his adorned wrist.
Hmm...
It made sense, but Dokja somehow hadn't expected it: his schedule had been cleared for the rest of the day, with the greyed-out slots now designating 'rest'.
He let his arm fall limply back down, resigning himself to napping the rest of his workday away.
Though he barely had the chance to guide Esper Yoo earlier, it sure had taken a lot out of him. There was still the unanswered question of why he had been assigned to such a high-ranking Esper in the first place. Typically, he was assigned C or B Level Sentinels. There had only been one instance at his previous company where he had to guide a rank higher than that – however that had been an emergency and an A-rank at most. It took him days to recover. This was all written in his employee history. . .
It just didn't make sense and Dokja's gears began turning.
Was this a sort of right-of-passage for new employees? It hadn't seemed like anyone else had guided the Esper though, from what Dokja had been overhearing in the employee break room.
A splitting headache greeted Dokja shortly into his deliberation, and he sighed. Though his mind was swirling with pending questions, he understood that what he really needed was rest; he would ponder the situation tomorrow with a fresh head.
He let his mind fade to black.